Alliance Navy
The Alliance Navy is an Second Life military group that was founded in March 2005 by Mazer Ludd in the sandboxes of Cordova and Goguen as a group for ship builders. Its primary headquarters is in Dorien, with other outposts elsewhere on the grid. It has existed constantly since it formation, and it is now led by Jim Herbst. =History= In March 2005, Mazer Ludd, a builder in SL, formed the Alliance Navy as a ship-building group. However, the sandboxes were at this time very volatile and swarming with griefers. The builders of the AN decided soon after the formation of the group to take up arms to defend themselves and others from the sandbox griefers. This event marks the AN\'s transition from a builders\' group to a police or military group. The goals of the AN at this time were to defend innocent builders and other inhabitants of the sandboxes from griefers. Some viewed the group as no better than the griefers they professed to fight, leading a few, most notably ose Clanger, founder of the Alliance Navy Rebellion, to actively fight the AN. After a few months of being a sandbox military group, the Alliance Navy decided to move on. They purchased land in a sim called Raziel Vesperia, and left the sandboxes to their own devices. This upset a faction within the Alliance Navy, led by Admiral Shadow Keegan, who was at the time second in command of the group. The faction wanted to return to the now self-sufficient sandboxes and continue to police them. This internal argument led Keegan to take his followers and break off from the AN and return to the sandboxes. He formed the Alliance Navy II with this as his goal, and at the same time became the primary enemy of the original AN. The AN recovered in the months following this schism, and soon grew to be larger than it was before Keegan's leaving. Now led by Jim Herbst, the group moved to the sim of Enceladus, eventually purchasing about half the sim, and eventually expanded into Tethys, purchasing about half of that sim as well. The group resided there until January 2007, at which time the sim of The Woofer was purchased and became the primary base of the AN. It was later renamed Dorien, and remains as such now. =Politics and Inter-group Relations= The Alliance Navy rarely has very many allies. At the moment, its primary allies are Sparta and 39th Mobile Heavy Task Force,"Black Watch"‎. All were previously enemies of the AN (or neutral, in the 39th's case), but later became friends and allies. In the past, the AN has been allied with the Merczateers, but that alliance went sour, as did the one with the Novus Ordo Imperialis, which collapsed shortly after everyone realized how useless the AN make SL combat. The Merczateers were allies of the Alliance Navy for about half a year before war broke out in February 2007. However, relations had already begun to make a downturn in December 2006. At around this time, a Second Life resident by the name of Mister Rodgers offered the Merczateers the right to build on his sim, named The Woofer. The Mercz took up the offer and for a few days built a city which they intended to become their headquarters. However, for reasons that remain unclear, Mister Rodgers threw out the Mercz and returned all their work within a couple of days, and offered the sim to the Alliance Navy. The AN refused the offer, because the Mercz were allies, and they did not want to support the Mercz belief that the AN was behind their ejection. However, the Mercz still believed the AN intended to steal their sim, and gathered any military they could to rally them for war on the AN. War, however, was averted for now, and the alliance was preserved, due to the efforts of the High Command of both groups to resolve the issue bloodlessly. This event severely damaged relations, however, and by the middle of January 2007, the alliance was broken, and all that remained was an uneasy truce. But peace only lasted about a month. Amid allegations of theft and primcopying, threats, mutual dislike, and general unrest amongst the enlisted and junior officer ranks, the Alliance Navy declared war. Recently, the war died down for approximately 1 month. However, in mid August, combat operations were resumed. As of November 2007, the combined Merczateers, Ordo Imperialis, and Militant collective have put into practice a policy of isolation of the Alliance Navy, though whether this is an attempt to sanction them for the use of gear allegedly considered unfair or an attempt to attack the AN through non-conventional means varies in the public opinion. The AN, however, has been apparently unaffected by these practices - members report a steady level of combat, continue to engage Merczateer, Ordo, and Collective troops in defense of allied bases, and even a chance to start the long-desired wargames with Bruno Ziskey's Sparta, 2142 and 39th Mobile Heavy Task Force, "Black Watch"‎. Allies The following groups are allied to the AN. *39th Mobile Heavy Task Force, "Black Watch"‎ *Sparta Enemies The following groups are hostile towards the AN. *2142 *Commando SL *Evil Eagles *EXÉRCITO BRASILEIRO *Merczateers *Militant Collective *Ordo Imperialis *Vanguard Armed Forces =Organization and Structure= The Alliance Navy is divided into three primary bodies, or divisions, which perform different roles in combat: Marine Division, Air Division, and Fleet Division. In addition to this, the group also utilizes several optional branches, such as JAG, Engineers, and the various training academies. These divisions work together in joint operations to better each others roles in the battle field and to provide the best equipment possible to do this. Marine Division The Marine Division performs ground combat operations using small arms, light artillery and some vehicles. Marines can be recognized by their red heavy combat armor. The weapons generally used by the Marines are single or burst fire, with the exception of squad support weapons. Marines generally enter combat either via direct teleportation, land marches to hostile parcels from nearby areas, or by being ferried into combat by a Fleet or Air Division dropship, or some combination of the above. A set of specialized weapons are currently in development in order to provide a wider range of capabilities for the Marines. These weapons include main battle rifles, support machine guns, marksman rifles, anti-tank rockets, and anti-air missiles. The goal is to allow the Marines to able to tackle a wider variety of challenges without having to rely too heavily on the support of other divisions if they are otherwise engaged. In addition to these weapons, a new set of armored vehicles are in development to complement the standard infantry role the Marines currently carry out. This new line of vehicles will include an infantry fighting vehicle, for engaging hostile soft targets, a self-propelled artillery vehicle for indirect support operations, and a main battle tank, for combating hostile armored vehicles. The current commanders of the Marine Division are Luca Vasilopita, ranked Captain, and Iolol Hax, ranked Chief Warrant Officer. There have been many commanders in the past, though they did not generally serve for very long periods of time. The longest-serving Marine Division commander so far was Mikael Khalamov, who was the commanding officer for nearly a year. Air Division The Alliance Navy Air Division is a group of the finest pilots on the grid that fly physical aircraft, which generally are used as fighters or bombers. The aircraft are built and scripted by the personnel within the group. The aircraft currently in service are the AN-700 Razor, AN-380 Katar, and AN-900 Talon. The Razor is an older aircraft used for training new cadets. The Katar is provided to pilots after completing their training. The Talon is reserved for NCOs and above. In the battlefield Air Division's main roles are to maintain air superiority, provide close air support for the Marines fighting on the ground, and to escort and defend fleet ships from enemy air-to-air fire. Previously they took on the role of transporting Marines into combat zones as well, but lately this role has been delegated to Fleet, though new Air Division dropships are in development. Air Division aircraft are generally outfitted with lasers, cannons, bombs, and missiles. The current commanders of the Air Division are Captain Trinity Heckroth and First Lieutenant Tomoe Cataract. Fleet Division The Alliance Navy Fleet Division is often argued as the oldest division (the main point being that the original projects of the aforemented ship-building group fell into the same category as the ships of today), the Alliance Navy Fleet Division pilots the larger nonphysical ships in the group possesion. In a battlefield role, the ships perform two major significant roles: First and foremost, ships are used for heavy bombardment of ground targets and light anti-aircraft support. The main armed ship in the Fleet, named the ANS Molay-class Frigate, is armed with a pleothera of destructive munitions, ranging from dropped ordinance such as the FASCAM airburst area-denial weapon and the Bunker-Buster to advanced missile systems capable of striking any point in a sim. All ships are equipped with several crew-manned turret points, which can be used in both anti-air gatling and anti-infantry cannon modes. As well as providing support for the Marines below, Fleet Division is responsible for ferrying their charges to and from the battlefront. A highly dangerous task, the ships (primarily the ANS Moebius-class Gunboat) utilise andvanced technology to protect their inhabitants from all but the heaviest incoming fire. With rapid ascent/descent possible, they are often seen only in the final moments of their approach, dropping off their payload and then rising up again to fetch another load. After the sad departure of phoenix Behemoth from command, the division is currently headed up by Lieutenant Junior Grade (soon to be Captain) Izaea Qinan and his infinitely more sexy second, First Lieutenant Rob Arten. The Fleet Division personnel continue to exceed common standard in every aspect of their duty, and constantly out-perform all comers to their glory. =Major Combat Operations= There has really been, to this point, only one major combat operation performed by the Alliance Navy: Operation Crucifix, which was performed at the dawn of th e second Alliance Navy/Mercz war, often referred to as "Grid War I". The attack began early in the morning, when the Merczateer logins were low, allowing an easy foothold to be attained, which was met with resistance later in the day. The assault began with marines taking Merczateer captives, and systematically executing them on the field, as their officers and higher enlisted held the Kremlin (which more resembled the St. Basil's Cathedral), the Merczateer administrations building, and a symbol of their power, as a stronghold. In response to this defense, the fleet division entered Badnarik from the southern straits of Salamis, causing devastation that Merczateers still remember to this day. The Merczateers at this point, had commissioned their first aircraft, an experimental assault aircraft specializing in bombing, however, it was equipped with dumbfire rockets, and extremely inaccurate chainguns. This aircraft was named the "A-BATS", and has always been unique in contrast to the much more contemporary "pointy" fighters for its rounded hull, and synthetic engine roar. The A-BATS were able to fight off the Alliance Navy Fleet ships, but were no match for the new Alliance Navy prizefighters, The ANAD Talons, equipped with heat seeking missles and extremely accurate cannon fire, as well as far more devastating bombs, which tore the A-BATS, along with any infantry support to shreds. At this point, the Merczateers were able to rally some support from Novus Ordo Imperialis veterans, but were not able to maintain the defense long enough to keep a lasting defense. The final blow struck by the Alliance Navy was delivered when Merczateer General, Jonathan Arna, sold the Kremlin to the Alliance Navy, after defecting. Following this, a member of the Merczateer High Command, Melly Deemster, proceeded to return all of the new owner's objects, in the process destroying the Kremlin. This concluded 39 hours of combat, and ended in a Merczateer defeat. =External Links= Alliance Navy Website (under construction) Category:Military Category:Military Groups